Gasoline costs are hurting my livlihood. No one can afford to go on vacation. I have to take less hours. Supply and demand is bull.

More than six of 10 North Americans say it's important they escape from home this year, a Gallup Poll finds. And many say they are finding methods around high gas prices, airfares and hotel rooms to do it.
"Rising gas costs won't at all affect my vacation," claims Richard Miller of Plano, Texas, who's flying to San Francisco in July with a ticket he scooped up in a fare sale. "I'm going."
The poll signifies that Americans are prepared to pay more to get away this summer : 71% of those that have a tendency to travel say they expect to spend more on transport this year, and 44% plan on paying rather more for food, lodging and entertainment.
Pay more they can. Almost every facet of travel in the usa is more expensive than it probably did last year, with the summer travel season starting in under two weeks, on Memorial Day weekend

 

I don't like higher costs either. Who does, especially with jobs at an all time low and stagnant salaries, my own included.

But let's face facts, Americans have gotten off cheap for years. When we were still paying <$1/gal at the pump, countries like England, Italy and Germany were paying an equivalent $6 -$8/gal!! Even Canadians pay more than we do and have.

As we all should know, OPEC is the controlling interest in crude oil costs, followed by Federal and State governments (add-on taxes) after the crude is refined into gasoline, and they are greedy, short-sited and stupid. But what big business isn't?

They have one goal and that's to make more money this year, this quarter than last and its up to the rest of us to figure out how we are going to pay for their stupidity and greed. They are like the child that doesn't know when to stop eating ice cream and cake until after its too late and the damage has already been done. But in that context it can take years for them to find out they've had a belly full, where as the child would know an hour after.

It's always been this way. Nothing new here. The main difference I see is how much influence big business now has on our governing bodies. With small, family run businesses all but a memory, big business is more powerful than ever before.

Governments no longer work for the people. People have little or no power (re:money) or influence. The real power is where the money is, and that's big business.

But as I'd said, they (big business) is not out to do any of us any favors, only figure out new ways to be controlling of the general population so they can continue doing what they do and being the major players in this country.

It is the death of small businesses, local businesses and the smaller world we live in today. We let it happen. We ignorantly embraced it thinking that something good for the many might come from this thinking all the while the architects of all this had other, more selfish plans.

IMO, the regular people of the world have been had, not only by oil prices but by all that have the need to win at all costs. But again, nothing new under the sun, just the degree, desperation and disregard for the future with which it comes at us.

 

Are you a Communist? The fact is that supply and demand works pretty well, hence the fact that the U.S. has some of the lowest fuel prices in the developed world. Like it or don't.

FWIW, from my perspective I wish the fuel prices would rise to six dollars or more per gallon; that would suddenly make alternative fuel production such as micro-algae sourced diesel more economically viable.

 

That's a nice thought Dale, but I don't think that would work either, which was exactly my point in the post above. Remember E85?

Since corn and products made from corn are so much a part of our food chain, food prices of many, many products skyrocketed and remain high to this day. Add to that E85 was no cheaper than gasoline, but afforded lesser fuel mileage actually making it more expensive in the end. Plus I read that it takes 1/3 gal of oil to produce 1 gal of ethanol. Where's the savings there?
Of course I am only using E85 as the example of the bigger picture.

How about the Internet? A wonderful invention that allows us to communicate right now over great distances. But how many people, including myself, have been adversely affected by it? Not because we become addicted to it, but because the hackers, independent and as well as corporate hires, watch what we do and adjust it to what we are doing. Ads, spyware, hacking of personal information (identity theft,) and of course the ever present SPAM you and I both know very well about.

The Star Trek universe was a dream, not the way it really works.

The greedy, A-types would still find ways to make the rest of us pay for it. It might be cheap for a while, until manufacturer's have us hooked and dependent, then costs to the consumer would rise and we would be right back to where we are now.

 

That's the beauty of microalgae based diesel in that it actually has a positive impact on the environment; consider the following:

• Microalgae DOES NOT require arable land typically reserved for agriculture
• Microalgae DOES NOT require the consumption of any petroleum products (fertilizers and such) for production
• Microalgae LOVES brackish and polluted water (municipal, industrial and agricultural sourced; it makes no matter)
• Microalgae is a voracious consumer of CO2
• Microalgae yields an oil that requires virtually zero refining before it can be used as Diesel fuel, fuel oil, home heating oil, and turbine engine fuel
• Microalgae yields a biomass that can be used as an agricultural or residential fertilizer and/or a feed for livestock.

Unless I'm missing something, there is very little correlation to the (bankrupt from the start) ethanol movement and microalgae sourced fuels.

What's not to like?

 

It's not 'like,' Dale, its trust, or lack of, of those that will be controlling/distributing the product. It's the people I don't trust to do the "right thing."

 

If there's money in it (and I believe there is) then I trust even the greediest SOBs out there to do the right thing.

 

As much as rising fuel prices bother me, I'm hoping the situation motivates automobile manufactures to produce more fuel efficient vehicles in the near term and work on alternative systems in the long term. I think its going to be decades before we can get away from a dependency on oil based fuels, and that is only if we as a culture make a decision to do so.

Lets face it, the huge majority of people don't "need" the large vehicles they drive. How many people know someone who drives a large truck or SUV and doesn't need the space or hauling capacity? I have a coworker who drives a GMC 4WD truck with a 5.3 liter V8 back and forth to work everyday. He lives 40 miles away from the office. Eighty miles a day, by himself, not towing our hauling anything. He won't get an economy car because it doesn't fit with his "image of himself".

I am far from a fan of government regulation, but I think we really need to do something to encourage consumers to buy the vehicles they need, not what fits with their "self-image".

 

I agree on not wanting government regulations on things in general and transportation in particular; that said, I think the market forces will drive us (so to speak) in the right direction with little or no government involvement. Said another way, if some idiot wants to drive 150 miles per day in a 14 mpg SUV, and if said individual can afford the price of entry, more power to him or her. If the price of that combination of factors is too high, they can either figure out how to drive fewer miles or buy a vehicle which consumes less fuel (personal image be damned). Here again, more power to them. Now, if our hypothetical 150 mile per day/14 mpg vehicle idiot insists on maintaining this dynamic and then wants to bitch about fuel prices, that’s where they cross the line in my book. My response to such a complaint? Tough!

The only scenario where I can see government involvement vis-à-vis the which vehicles are selected for any given driving dynamic, is for the government to finally wise up and start charging an appropriate amount of tax on every gallon of fuel to maintain the infrastructure where said fuel will be consumed (you know, roads and bridges); possibly using some of that tax revenue to fund research into improving the yield of alternative fuels and to technologies which will lead to greater fuel efficiencies. Let's also assume (for the sake of argument) fuel prices will stabilize between four and six dollars for the next decade or so (by no means a guarantee on either the low or high side). With fuel prices in that realm, there will be natural demand for both more fuel efficient vehicles as well as for the production of alternative sources of fuel which promise to be more bio-friendly (even to the point of being bio-beneficial) and more stable from a cost perspective to produce and distribute.

 

I can't think of a good way for the government to regulate vehicle ownership based on need that doesn't have flaws. Charging higher taxes based on fuel consumption or engine size might work for some folks, but a lot of others are simply going to pay the tax and keep getting 14 MPG. Rationing could be an option, but I hate to advocate that level of restriction outside of a national crisis (such as WWII). At any rate, I'm of the opinion that filling government coffers with people's money just for the sake of doing so isn't right. After all, its the population that suffers from increased fuel consumption, not governmental bodies.

I don't know what the answer is. Perhaps some sort of permitting system where purchasers have to show legitimate need to purchase a vehicle with more than 4 cylinders or under some MPG rating? But then, who decides the need? Permits are always subject to corruption if they leave the decision up to someone based on anything other than spelled out criteria.

What bothers me about people driving vehicles that use huge amounts of fuel they don't need is due to the increased consumption. That effects all of us. Increased consumption means greater demand, which in turn means higher prices. It also increases the speed in which limited resources are consumed. I don't care that my co-worker can afford to drive his 4WD V8 pickup 80 miles a day. We can't afford for him to.

I lived 30 miles from work the last time gas prices spiked. I took it upon myself to move. I now live five miles from work. I've gone from fueling up my 4 cylinder economy car once a week to once a month. Now, if I can figure out a way to get rid of my 6 cylinder mini-van for a Mazda5 4 cylinder 6-speed without taking a bath, I will. I'd like to get to the point where I have nothing but 4 cylinder cars averaging at least 25 MPG, I'd prefer 30 MPG. I'd buy diesel vehicles if they were more available in the US. Perhaps in time they will be.